[dburna]

I took a movie in VIDEO_TS format and converted it via Handbrake to MP4 so that iTunes (and in particular my previous gen Apple TV) would recognize it.  All well and good -- my Apple TV plays the movie.  However, I noticed that the converted file (I used standard/default settings on Handbrake) was considerably smaller that the original VIDEO_TS file(s). 

So my questions are:

1.  Am I losing resolution in order to play this movie on Apple TV?

2. Does Apple TV de-compress this MP4 file (I think the base file format was H.264) upon playback?

3. If I am indeed losing resolution, is this avoidable?  Are there certain settings on Handbrake that I should use to avoid this problem in the future?

Thanks,  -dB

[skunark]

This is probably best asked on the handbrake forums, but each device will have unique requirements.  Keep in mind that h.264 is a much more efficient at compression than what is found on a DVD so the file size will be smaller.  Also understand that not all DVDs are equal and the conversion to the format you selected could degrade the quality.   I would select the format for your generation of the apple tv.  The handbrake folks are very very slow to release new versions so pick up the beta version found on their forums.

[NekoAudio]

DVD video is encoded as MPEG-2, which has a worse compression ratio than H.264. That is why the file size is smaller. During playback, H.264 is decoded and decompressed (i.e. turned back into full video frames) so you can watch it.

There should be no loss in pixel resolution, however converting MPEG-2 to H.264 is a lossy conversion. If you don't want any data loss, you cannot perform any format conversion.